The Day After: Bringing the road energy home – Panthers.com

Rhule said Monday morning, a little bleary eyed and drinking coffee after the team returned around 1:30 a.m., that he liked the signs he saw immediately.

“The challenge for us moving forward is to become a consistent team. That’s what we have to start with today,” Rhule said. “We got back really late last night; there was no victory Monday, there was no day off, we’re back here working today. Because we have to become a consistent team, and to me, that comes from the daily discipline of becoming one percent better and attacking everything you do. That’s my message; that’s my approach.

“Like everyone else in this building, I’m tired from this trip, but I’m excited to play this week.”

After the way they played Sunday, there’s every reason for that.

The Panthers dominated the previously 8-1 Cardinals on both sides of the ball, with the defense creating takeaways and the offense turning them into touchdowns, with special teams doing its part, and many people beyond Newton doing their share.

It was similar to the output in Atlanta, when they ran 47 times for 203 yards and shut down the Falcons, and that was in a game without Newton (or Christian McCaffrey).

Rhule said he was having a conversation with cornerback Donte Jackson about that dynamic during the plane ride home — a plane ride during which no one slept, and Rhule saw an engaged, together team.

“I just think when you’re on the road, you’re kind of sequestered, the guys all go to eat together, you come back for meetings, you’re in the hotel,” Rhule said.

“Just the road trip vibes,” Jackson said. “You’re taking your guys, the guys you’re every day in the building with, and you go to another city, and you just have that feeling where the whole city is going for the home team, and we’re all we got. So we go out there and fight harder. It’s just a mentality thing; you’re on the road, you feel like everybody’s against you. It just turns us up a little more when our backs are against the wall, I guess.”